Do you remember? Off-track betting gets cool reception from city officials

News-Times, The (Danbury, CT), From The News-Times files

Published 1:00 am, Saturday, March 14, 2009

25 years ago

The state's off-track betting executives, who hope to open five more OTB parlors in the state, brought their dog-and-pony show to Danbury City Hall this week.

But Mayor
James E
. Dyer and
Common Council
President
Constance McManus
told them that their proposal for a parlor in Danbury faces slim odds, that the rewards from legalized gambling are not great enough and the potential problems too many.

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In a few weeks the official red, white and blue logo of Danbury's tricentennial celebration will be appearing on various items from bumper stickers to cowboy hats.

The first stirrings of the celebration began this week with the announcement of the winner of the city's tricentennial logo contest, Brookfield resident
Dan McKee
, owner of Designs and Signs in that town.

A new and so far voluntary system slowly being put into effect around the nation is called ZIP + 4.

It is a combination of existing ZIP codes with a four-digit number added on, and new high-speed equipment -- manufactured in Danbury by
Pitney Bowes
-- that reads the ZIP + 4 and automatically sorts the mail into bins for delivery.

ä

Plans show the proposed Danbury Fair mall with two stories, a "Big Top" interior and 5,556 parking spaces on the former fairgrounds site.

But she is perhaps best known in town for her efforts to have the town install concrete bins -- which First Selectman Clifford Hurgin jokingly refers to as "the Libby Lockers" -- at its trash transfer station last spring to collect glass for recycling.

The Nestle Company Inc. has been fined $30,000 this week after pleading no contest to charges of illegally dumping 250,000 gallons of dehydrated food waste into the Housatonic River from its Boardman Road plant in New Milford.

Thomas
J. Kakadelis
, formerly of Danbury, a graduate student in social studies at
Los Angeles State College
, has received the coveted Harry Biggen's Foundation Society Award for outstanding all-around achievement on campus.

ä

A blowy nor'easter brought the winter's worst snowstorm to this area today (March 12, 1959), closing schools, snarling traffic and causing postponement of dozens of meetings.

He expressed a desire to ride in a big, powerful, 50-gallon chemical wagon, and the chief was given a seat directly in front of the speedometer.

The driver began letting the automobile out a peg or two and the chief's eyes began to bulge as he saw the speedometer creeping up to 20, 30, 40 and 50 miles an hour, the highest the instrument would register.

The chief stated that 50 miles an hour was "too blamed fast for comfort."

ä

A man driving a horse with a broken leg along Elm Street was pursued by a crowd of 50 people, overtaken and dragged from his wagon and beaten.

The man succeeded in getting away from his captors and, it was ascertained afterward, got another rig and drove to Brewster, N.Y.